My Story
I was once uncertain about my ability to pursue a career in engineering. Experiences with family members and classmates who doubted my ability to take on STEM negatively impacted my confidence. It wasn’t until I spoke with female role models in STEM that I began to envision myself as an engineer again. During middle school I joined clubs like VEX robotics and Aberdeen Proving Ground's STEM sponsored program and regained my confidence as I worked with other girls to complete to complete successful peers.
My Project
I will carry out these objectives by supplying the girls with engineering project kits, working synchronously with them to complete the activities in the kits, and hosting Q&A sessions with a diverse panel of female engineers. By educating girls through hands on activities, we can help them feel more confident about what they create and their ability to excel in STEM subjects. By allowing the girls to participate in Q&A sessions with female engineers, they will be able to easier visualize themselves pursuing a career in a field where they are largely underrepresented. I hope to give girls the opportunity to really hone their interest in any particular engineering career, especially those in the eighth grade that may be applying to magnet high school programs during the time (January 2022-March 2022). I will also develop a video series about how engineering has impacted our community and the role engineers play in creating the world around us. The video series can be directly transferred to the hands-on environmental, computer, mechanical, and civil engineering activities that we will complete.
My Interview
Check out my interview with Fiona Doyle, a professor of material science and engineering at UC Berkeley, where she spoke about her experiences in graduate school and the change to training graduate students.